RETURNING TO INDIA - Dallas company resettles workers in turnaround plan
By BARRY SHLACHTER2004
BANGALORE, India -- Not everyone wants the American dream, even when they've experienced it.
In an unusual move, a seriously ailing Dallas software company, i2 Technologies, resettled 209 Indian engineers, programmers and managers in their South Asian homeland on a voluntary basis to help stem losses as it laid off thousands of other employees.
Many returnees had worked in Texas, Massachusetts and California for five to seven years on H-1B visas designed for temporary, highly skilled workers, although about 10 percent had acquired permanent-residency green cards or U.S. citizenship.
They found the company's Move to India Program too good to turn down -- even if it meant a pay cut of 50 percent or more. The company declined to say how much the workers earned in the United States or India, but the U.S. industry scale for such work ranges from $48,000 to $75,000.
None was pressured by management to return, said Gunaranjan "Guna" Pemmaraju, a 30-year-old engineer who had lived in Arlington, then Richardson, two Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs.
The returnees, many graduates of India's top technical universities, were confident of finding other U.S. jobs if i2 laid them off and were prepared to "change industries if need be," he asserted.
A series of corporate crises led to the mass repatriation, which began in 2001.
Once a high flier on the Nasdaq exchange, i2 at one point was worth more than General Motors -- $42 billion in August 2000, versus GM's $39 billion.
A federal investigation, a restatement of revenues and buckets of red ink led to a collapsing share price. Delisted by Nasdaq, the company today is valued at $430 million with debts of more than $357 million.
Pemmaraju said he is grateful for his 3-1/2 years in the North Texas lMetroplex.
"When I left America, I actually kissed the ground," he said. "It helped me grow as an individual, and it enriched my thought process."
Significantly, though, Pemmaraju says the quality of life in his middle-class Bangalore neighborhood is comparable -- with a few minor downsides that he and his wife are willing to accept.
Pemmaraju relies on DSL Internet access, fields morning calls from Dallas colleagues on a cellphone and watches satellite TV while pedaling his new exercise bike. Instead of a Honda Accord, he drives a much smaller Suzuki Zen sedan.
The wage and benefit savings are helping i2 edge toward profitability, said Sankalp Saxena, managing director of i2's India operations. The company says the savings have been substantial but declined to cite a dollar amount.
"I don't know if it's crisis management. Clearly, it's an affordability issue," said Saxena, himself an American citizen who plans to return to the United States. He noted that i2 traditionally had drawn software engineers from India and that some had expressed a desire to return home.
At its peak, i2 employed 6,349 people, with about 800 in India. It has since scaled down to 2,500 workers, 1,100 of whom are based in Bangalore.
Back in the homeland
Of the i2 repatriates interviewed, most say they would have eventually returned if they could -- before their children got too entrenched in the American education system.
"We jumped for joy," was Pemmaraju's reaction when told of the subsidized return scheme.
Still, some acquaintances couldn't believe they'd trade a chance at American affluence.
"You really want to move back?" Indian and American friends inTexas kept asking Anurag Sharma, now head of i2's customer support center in India.
Abhijit Khasnis' own mother questioned the wisdom of his coming home.
"What salary will you get?" the bachelor software architect recalled her asking. When told, she replied, "It doesn't sound like a very sensible decision."
But Khasnis explained that living costs would be a fraction in Bangalore. He had paid $700 of the $2,000 rent on an apartment with three roommates in the United States. He and his widowed mother now share a 1,100-square-foot apartment that runs $160 a month.
For some, the distrust of foreign-looking people after the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon soured their American experience.
"I felt like a second-class citizen," said Sukumar Bhasker, who holds U.S. citizenship.
But that was "only 5 percent" of the reason he returned. "School education is actually better in India," he said, referring to elite urban schools, which are considered more rigorous than typical American public schools.
Still, things taken for granted in Texas or California are missed here.
In Pemmaraju's neighborhood, municipal water is available for eight hours -- every other day. It is then pumped to a tank on the roof.
Gone too is the relative orderliness of American driving.
Motorists dodge cows, which are free to roam because of their sacred status in Hinduism, and the anarchic swarm of trucks, taxis, motorbikes, three-wheeled rickshaws and ever more new drivers behind the wheel, thanks to a burgeoning middle class in Bangalore.
"In India, I am probably the only one on the road who tries to stay in the correct lane," said Deepak Sanghi, an i2 technical manager.
There are other frustrations.
When getting something repaired in the United States, "it's 'get it right the first time,' " Pemmaraju said. "In India, 'it's get it right some time.' "
Shopping can be time-consuming in India where daily necessities might have to be bought at a half-dozen specialty shops, said Sharma. "I had more time for family in the United States."
In other ways, life in urban India can be easier. Some noted that many shops offer home delivery and even roadside florists take cell-phone orders.
Moreover, concierge services have popped up in cities like Bangalore, said Seema Bhardwaj, a quality supervisor.
Although their pay shrank in dollar terms, the repatriates are relatively better off in India.
"If we were in the top 25 percent [income bracket] in the United States, we're in the top 5 percent here," Sanghi said.
"We may not have 54-inch TV sets, but we have more of a sense of community and belonging here," Bhardwaj added.
Pemmaraju qualified that remark.
"If we felt 'out of the community' [in the United States], we are probably also to blame," said Pemmaraju, although he himself had joined friends most Sunday mornings outside the Dallas Public Library, where they distributed free bagels and orange juice to the homeless.
Pemmaraju and his wife bought a spacious two-story home on a quiet Bangalore street where neighbors have become almost extended family.
The couple express no regrets about returning, yet they retain fond memories of the United States, a country of "milk and honey" -- not to mention seven-layer Taco Bell burritos and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
Pemmaraju was tickled by a recent call to a fast-food restaurant.
"A guy answered the phone saying, 'Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. Would that be for delivery or carry out?' " he said.
"It's just what they said in Arlington!"
(c) Fort Worth Star-Telegram
A condensed version was used as a case study in the book, Managing Human Resources, by Scott A. Snell, George W. Bohlanderd.
BANGALORE, India -- Not everyone wants the American dream, even when they've experienced it.
In an unusual move, a seriously ailing Dallas software company, i2 Technologies, resettled 209 Indian engineers, programmers and managers in their South Asian homeland on a voluntary basis to help stem losses as it laid off thousands of other employees.
Many returnees had worked in Texas, Massachusetts and California for five to seven years on H-1B visas designed for temporary, highly skilled workers, although about 10 percent had acquired permanent-residency green cards or U.S. citizenship.
They found the company's Move to India Program too good to turn down -- even if it meant a pay cut of 50 percent or more. The company declined to say how much the workers earned in the United States or India, but the U.S. industry scale for such work ranges from $48,000 to $75,000.
None was pressured by management to return, said Gunaranjan "Guna" Pemmaraju, a 30-year-old engineer who had lived in Arlington, then Richardson, two Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs.
The returnees, many graduates of India's top technical universities, were confident of finding other U.S. jobs if i2 laid them off and were prepared to "change industries if need be," he asserted.
A series of corporate crises led to the mass repatriation, which began in 2001.
Once a high flier on the Nasdaq exchange, i2 at one point was worth more than General Motors -- $42 billion in August 2000, versus GM's $39 billion.
A federal investigation, a restatement of revenues and buckets of red ink led to a collapsing share price. Delisted by Nasdaq, the company today is valued at $430 million with debts of more than $357 million.
Pemmaraju said he is grateful for his 3-1/2 years in the North Texas lMetroplex.
"When I left America, I actually kissed the ground," he said. "It helped me grow as an individual, and it enriched my thought process."
Significantly, though, Pemmaraju says the quality of life in his middle-class Bangalore neighborhood is comparable -- with a few minor downsides that he and his wife are willing to accept.
Pemmaraju relies on DSL Internet access, fields morning calls from Dallas colleagues on a cellphone and watches satellite TV while pedaling his new exercise bike. Instead of a Honda Accord, he drives a much smaller Suzuki Zen sedan.
The wage and benefit savings are helping i2 edge toward profitability, said Sankalp Saxena, managing director of i2's India operations. The company says the savings have been substantial but declined to cite a dollar amount.
"I don't know if it's crisis management. Clearly, it's an affordability issue," said Saxena, himself an American citizen who plans to return to the United States. He noted that i2 traditionally had drawn software engineers from India and that some had expressed a desire to return home.
At its peak, i2 employed 6,349 people, with about 800 in India. It has since scaled down to 2,500 workers, 1,100 of whom are based in Bangalore.
Back in the homeland
Of the i2 repatriates interviewed, most say they would have eventually returned if they could -- before their children got too entrenched in the American education system.
"We jumped for joy," was Pemmaraju's reaction when told of the subsidized return scheme.
Still, some acquaintances couldn't believe they'd trade a chance at American affluence.
"You really want to move back?" Indian and American friends inTexas kept asking Anurag Sharma, now head of i2's customer support center in India.
Abhijit Khasnis' own mother questioned the wisdom of his coming home.
"What salary will you get?" the bachelor software architect recalled her asking. When told, she replied, "It doesn't sound like a very sensible decision."
But Khasnis explained that living costs would be a fraction in Bangalore. He had paid $700 of the $2,000 rent on an apartment with three roommates in the United States. He and his widowed mother now share a 1,100-square-foot apartment that runs $160 a month.
For some, the distrust of foreign-looking people after the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon soured their American experience.
"I felt like a second-class citizen," said Sukumar Bhasker, who holds U.S. citizenship.
But that was "only 5 percent" of the reason he returned. "School education is actually better in India," he said, referring to elite urban schools, which are considered more rigorous than typical American public schools.
Still, things taken for granted in Texas or California are missed here.
In Pemmaraju's neighborhood, municipal water is available for eight hours -- every other day. It is then pumped to a tank on the roof.
Gone too is the relative orderliness of American driving.
Motorists dodge cows, which are free to roam because of their sacred status in Hinduism, and the anarchic swarm of trucks, taxis, motorbikes, three-wheeled rickshaws and ever more new drivers behind the wheel, thanks to a burgeoning middle class in Bangalore.
"In India, I am probably the only one on the road who tries to stay in the correct lane," said Deepak Sanghi, an i2 technical manager.
There are other frustrations.
When getting something repaired in the United States, "it's 'get it right the first time,' " Pemmaraju said. "In India, 'it's get it right some time.' "
Shopping can be time-consuming in India where daily necessities might have to be bought at a half-dozen specialty shops, said Sharma. "I had more time for family in the United States."
In other ways, life in urban India can be easier. Some noted that many shops offer home delivery and even roadside florists take cell-phone orders.
Moreover, concierge services have popped up in cities like Bangalore, said Seema Bhardwaj, a quality supervisor.
Although their pay shrank in dollar terms, the repatriates are relatively better off in India.
"If we were in the top 25 percent [income bracket] in the United States, we're in the top 5 percent here," Sanghi said.
"We may not have 54-inch TV sets, but we have more of a sense of community and belonging here," Bhardwaj added.
Pemmaraju qualified that remark.
"If we felt 'out of the community' [in the United States], we are probably also to blame," said Pemmaraju, although he himself had joined friends most Sunday mornings outside the Dallas Public Library, where they distributed free bagels and orange juice to the homeless.
Pemmaraju and his wife bought a spacious two-story home on a quiet Bangalore street where neighbors have become almost extended family.
The couple express no regrets about returning, yet they retain fond memories of the United States, a country of "milk and honey" -- not to mention seven-layer Taco Bell burritos and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
Pemmaraju was tickled by a recent call to a fast-food restaurant.
"A guy answered the phone saying, 'Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. Would that be for delivery or carry out?' " he said.
"It's just what they said in Arlington!"
(c) Fort Worth Star-Telegram
A condensed version was used as a case study in the book, Managing Human Resources, by Scott A. Snell, George W. Bohlanderd.
